After the awesomeness that was the shoot at the Neon Graveyard, we headed out to Eldorado Canyon where the abondoned Techatticup Mine is located at. Currently the site is run as a tourist attraction. We were there with two model/brides Miki and Michelle. I was unable to shoot Miki but I spent some time with the fabulous Michelle and got some great images as sunset loomed. I want to say a very special thank you to David E Jackson, RLB Photography and Adam Koepke for helping me with the one light at sunset. Another HUGE thank you goes out to Tim & Jaime of Jackson Photography for their help setting up this shoot and for helping me de-cactus myself. Yes, I fell into a cactus and had a whole entire head of the thing stuck in my hand. Which bits are still in actually. I know you guys are really surprised! Ha ha!

Corey-MC That’s my favorite too!!! The light was just right for that shot!

M.Crosby -I lovvvve the last one! That is cool! So dramatic.

Kate-Oh my goodness, these are OUTSTANDING Corey. I am totally in love with each and every one – the colors, the light … wow. My absolute favorites are the first B&W with the cacti in the background – it is so magical, and that light is blowing me away – and the first one with that gorgeous green paint. Oh, maybe the sun flare one too! Gosh, they are all just so great!

Corey-Kate: Thank you SO much! The eeeevviilll cacti. The light at this ghost town was so awesome!!! I wanna go back!!! Next year I’ll take you with me!

WPPI offers classes before the big convention starts called Plus Classes that are essentially workshops with various photographers. This year’s classes were made up of 8 of the top photographers in the field, with 20 students per class, focusing for two days on their personal expertise in photography. I chose Mike Colón because I adore his work, he shoots Nikon (which is what I shoot) and I felt that I could learn a lot from him. I felt that our shooting styles were very much similar when it comes to shooting so I really felt that I could learn a lot from this amazing photographer.

The classes bascially were about the basics of photography and learning how to find and shoot natural light correctly. Each day we had a morning session of learning the craft and the afternoons were spent with models implementing what we learned during the day. The first day we had Jen & Adam as our models and the second day we had Krystal & Adam (same guy, different gals) as our models. I feel that I learned a lot from Mike – especially when it comes to determing light sources! I also learned how to pay attention more to what is in the background that could be potentially distracting when shooting. He also had his assistant/friend/sidekick Ray Santana along with him for the class and I also learned a lot from Ray.

I felt bad for both guys though who were mystified with my manners. When it comes to fighting 20 people for a shot, I’m the first to bow out. I got elbowed in the head a few times and someone hit me with their lens (some of these lenses aren’t light! ow!). Photography isn’t a contact sport in my world so I chose to go for the odd angles and try and get what I can. Both Ray & Mike by the second day were trying to not be great teachers but were also shoving me in for the good shots and looking out for me. They were both fantastic. I can’t say enough things about them. Anyone that gets a chance to take Mike’s workshop absolutely should!!

I am working on my pricelist for next year and it really bothers me that I need to and have to raise my prices.

For this year, I am sacrificing making a profit for the experience shooting weddings. Although I have been taking pictures since I practically took my first steps, I have not done this professionally for long (1 year) so I needed to do what I could to book weddings. I am so grateful to all of my couples that have taken a leap of faith with me and booked me for this upcoming wedding season!! You will forever be stars in my universe!! However if I want to stay in business, I cannot operate for more than one season at these prices.

While working on my package set-ups for next year, I kept thinking back to my brides of this current season that would not be able to afford me next year. It really is bothering me. I started to brainstorm to come up with some ideas for something that I could do that could help out a bride in need so to speak. I finally came up with something but I would like everyone’s input on this because sometimes I’ll admit, my ideas aren’t the brightest or the most feasible.

My idea is this, for $500 I thinking of offering a package called “The Cinderella Story” (to go along with my fairy tale theme of course). The package will have online hosting of images and a per-event determined set hours of shooting. The part of the conditions of this package that worry me that people would be upset with is that I would only allow one of these packages to be booked per month during the “busy” wedding season. I would allow unlimited bookings from October through April as well as any on summer weekdays. The other part I was toying with was that I would require the Bride to write to me and tell me why she needs this package. Tell me their love story, tell me why she needs it… etc. Is that too much? Is this a good idea? Have a better one? Let me know!

The bottom line is that I’m looking forward to serving this area as a photographer for years to come and to do this I want to not run myself into the ground but I still don’t want to forget the people that got me to BE in business either!

Later on this afternoon/evening I will be posting photos from my workshop with Mike Colon and Ray Santana from WPPI!